The fountain of youth

The abstract beauty of the Palace of the Lions, derived from its architectural composition and symbolic decoration, is complemented by the beautifully painted images of people, animals, objects and architecture on the vaults of the three rooms in the Hall of the Kings.

The technique used in the execution of the three paintings is mixed media on sheepskin over wood, the media being pigments applied over a base layer of stucco with applications of gold sheets, with details also brushed on in gold leaf. They belong to Nasrid art of the late 14th century, and their authorship is unknown. They allow us to imagine what daily life would have been like in Nasrid palaces.

The first of the rooms in the hall, on the south side, is known as the Room of the Lady Playing Chess, because the painting on the ceiling shows a young woman conversing with a likewise young man, separated by a chessboard. The Alhambra Museum exhibits a chess set (a game introduced to the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th century) made of wood with inlaid decoration, such that the back of the board displays another game, that of "tablas". This fact prompts one to wonder about the life of those in the service of Muhammad V and his family living in the “Happy Garden”.

Both the painting in this first room and the one in the third, located on the north side and known as the Room of the Fountain of Youth, offer images of palace life. They depict scenes of war, hunting and, quite beautifully, the passing of the hours of the day, emphasizing the dialogue between lovers in the “castles of love”, a secular iconographic motif widely developed in the European figurative arts of the 14th century and incorporated into his poems by Jorge Manrique, one of the best Castilian poets of the 15th century. It consists of the representation of a castle or tower inhabited only by women (in keeping with the feminine character of the Palace of Lions), who defend themselves against the knights attempting to besiege the fortress by throwing flowers at them. An analysis of the clothing of the figures in these paintings was the subject of a magnificent study by Professor Carmen Bernis Madrazo in Las pinturas de la sala de los Reyes de la Alhambra. Los asuntos, los trajes, la fecha (The Paintings in the Hall of the Kings at the Alhambra. The Subject Matter, Clothing, Date, 1982).

The Palace of the Lions was built during Muhammad V’s second reign, between 1362 and 1391. The Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, narrates the travels of the fictional character John of Mandeville (Jehan de Mandeville). Appearing in 1356, it tells of the Fountain of Youth. This book, together with Marco Polo's Book of the Marvels of the World, served as a fundamental source of information for Europeans on the subject of the Orient, always seen from the perspective of the marvelous (proof of its validity is that the book was translated into Spanish as late as 1521). The pseudo-traveler even claims to have drunk from the fountain or well of youth:

“And at the foot of that mount [Polombe] is a fair well and a great, that hath odour and savour of all spices. And at every hour of the day he changeth his odour and his savour diversely. And whoso drinketh three times fasting of that water of that well he is whole of all manner of sickness that he hath. And they that dwell there and drink often of that well they never have sickness; and they seem always young. I have drunken thereof three or four sithes [i.e. times], and yet, methinketh, I fare the better. Some men clepe [i.e. call] it the well of youth. For they that often drink thereof seem always young-like, and live without sickness. And men say, that that well cometh out of Paradise, and therefore it is so virtuous.” The color of the water that this fountain contains derives from the smell and taste of the Alhambra, it smells of youth, of green hope.